A Shadow
by ThingsBeforeBreakfast
Summary: A new recruit for Riley's army.


The shadow had been following me for a while. I slipped down dark streets full of holes only for it to re-emerge when I crossed, greasy orange light turning the damp roads into an oil slicks. I froze under the fluorescent lights and looked. It was scattered across the side-walk, growing, glistening towards a centre point but already the centre had moved, the shadow moved. I ran. I needed a main street, any road with shops and people and open doors but there was nothing in sight, lawn after lawn stretching on down this road and the next and the next. And still the shadow sprung up, ran parallel to me, vanished, hit, vanished as it passed the street lights. I was panting, not much of a runner and I realised with an acute sense of horror that I was utterly lost in the grid of houses. I wanted to shout, to wake up those sleepers and go in, but there was no time for that, it was gaining again, two shadows cast by a lamp and they were scissors and I felt if they touched me I would snap. The houses were thinning out. The gaps between them became longer and soon they disappeared, I was running through the night and I was not alone. But the shadow merged perfectly with the darkness, it melted into its creator like the indistinct rustling black lumps of trees. My jacket was heavy on my back, my side's were searing, the sweat running down my face soaked into my shirt. I had to keep on running, my sides burned, my glasses slammed into my nose, every heavy foot landing shook through the spine.

Lights! The night was being cut apart by lights! I threw myself towards them, heart beating out of my ribcage with exhaustion. Darkness scrapped the nape of my neck. Closer they came and closer down the road, high fencing, a sign across I couldn't read running, large gates. Locked gates. I crashed into them and began screaming for help, but there was no answer. The shadow was behind me, or around me, there was no more running from it now.

Gasping, gulping air, collapsed on the boards I waited for the inevitable to happen. Against the harsh lights the shadow had taken form. Human shaped, walking towards me with no hurry. It came closer, the black holes filling in. I cowed with terror, trying to sink into my jacket, to disappear into the folds of fabric. Blond hair, dark clothes, white skin, so white it reflected the light with dark eyes, dark red eyes, so dark they were two holes in the face, so dark they sucked in the light and it vanished in them.

When it reached me I was still panting on the floor. I knew there was no use shouting. It put an arm round my throat and lifted me off the floor till my feet skimmed the surface of the tarmac. The lump in my throat bumped into the choke hold and I struggled for breath, flailing and slowly gagging myself with movement. Through watering eyes I could see its face, a man's face, more light then shadow.

"Are we done with running now?", his voice purred. He let go and my legs buckled beneath me, my chin hitting the road hard. I felt a gush of blood run down my neck.

"Stand up."

I pushed my two arms out under me, they crumbled.

"Stand."

He grabbed the back of my jacket and put me on my feet. He grinned at my bleeding face, with cold hands on my shoulders he bent and licked the blood off my neck. I shivered and wobbled but the hands held steady. His cold tongue ran along my throat, forcing my head up with his. He pulled away. A trail of blood slid obscenely across his lips.

"I'm going to enjoy this."

He brought my hand up to his face. Very slowly he pushed the middle finger back, and back, and back, and back. The snap scared me more than the pain. The grin spread on his face. Dropping the hand he reached for my glasses and broke them. He scrapped the metal arms down the bridge of my nose. His eyes were bloodstained dark coffee, liquid, swirling.

"I think I'll set a new standard for irony. How does this sound? I'm going to blind you now, with these…" He shook the half of the glasses. They glinted in the lights, I couldn't breathe, the pain shot through my hand with every gasp for air.

Suddenly he flung me up, weightless into the air. I landed on his shoulder. The crunch that sounded shot pain through my chest, some ribs had snapped. My head swam, the world span. I passed out.

* * *

**A/N: This is just set in the Twilight world, but it's really about the characters in the book. I'm curious about whether I should carry on (I've got a sketch for the story, but not much detail yet) so please let me know if you liked it!  
**


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